High school football: Liberty must replace a lot more than Bafaro

View full sizeDan Itel / The Argus
Liberty senior running back A.J. Antillion (24) will lead the Falcons into the 2012 season as one of the team's four returning players with varsity experience.

Brett Bafaro is leaving a 6-foot-2, 220-pound hole in this year's Liberty High School football team.

To fill it enters 5-foot-8, 175-pound A.J. Antillion.

So as the Falcons start their first week of normal practices -- minus all-world running back and linebacker Bafaro, who will play his football for the University of Oregon this fall -- it would be easy to write off their chances. Not so fast, said Antillion and head coach Eric Mahlum.

"People can talk all they want, but they aren't here working with us," Antillion said. "And this group of guys, from our senior camp trip to the team camp, guys are just bonding so much closer. And we're spending so much more time together outside of football, which is helping us."

Antillion said the absence of star players like Bafaro, as well as Northwest Oregon Conference lineman of the year Nate Aamodt and all-conference defenders in linebacker Evan Eggiman and cornerback Michael Gregory, has reinforced the team concept. Antillion said everyone feels like they have a chance to contribute to the team.

"I think some guys are probably working harder now that they're gone because they think that they have a shot to start now," he said. "But the competition is as high as it's ever been. Guys are just working their butts off all summer."

And they'll need to work.

Because the numbers show Liberty will fight an uphill battle this season. The Falcons return just four players with varsity experience. And the absences go beyond just the graduated star players. Gone is quarterback Nate Selby, running back/safety Johnny Vaea, who was also a first-team punter, second-team linebacker Matt Ferguson, running back Nolan Selby, and the list goes on.

The Falcons will field a quarterback with zero varsity experience as Mahlum chooses between junior Mike McBride, the junior varsity starter last year, and sophomore Byron Greenlee, who was slated to start for the freshman team last year before breaking his ankle in the season opener.

"The kids look around and they don't see a Bafaro or an Eggiman, and they realize that they have to step it up," said Mahlum, who was named co-NWOC coach of the year after leading Liberty to a third-place conference finish and to the first-round of the Class 5A state playoffs. "What's really standing out is watching these guys compete and work together as a team."

That makes Antillion's presence all the more important.

His breakout junior season, which ended with him receiving a first-team all-conference selection at running back, defied his diminutive stature. This year, he said he's shooting for 1,000 yards rushing and also improvements on the defensive side of the ball where he plays cornerback.

"Losing so many seniors, I definitely had to step up this year," he said. "I went to all the spring workouts and just being here for these young guys and kind of show them that hard work does pay off is important. You can tell I'm not the biggest or the toughest, I just have the most heart. And I'm just here to show the guys that that's how we do it here."

Mahlum said Antillion has embraced his leadership role, and he expects big things from him this season.

"For a kid like A.J., the biggest thing that he brings to these kids is his leadership," Mahlum said. "His work ethic, the kids see how hard he works. And they look at him and see that he's not the biggest guy and say, 'that kid was all-league, and he had to earn it.' He didn't get it because he was the biggest, strongest fastest kid out here. He looks like every other kid out here. So what I think is he gives those guys hope and recognition that hard work pays off. And that's what he does, he'll out work any other kid out here. And he's determined. He wants to win."

Mahlum said Antillion's hard working example is exactly what this year's group of players needs. Because, he said, that's the only way they'll fill the mighty hole left by Bafaro.

"Not everybody is 6-2, 215 and runs a 4.5 40," Mahlum said. "It didn't take them long to shake that off and realize that nobody is going to judge us off of Brett not being here, they're going to judge us off what we do."